This was posted on another site by myself and keep in mind I'm not necessarily speaking about the great fans here. Thanks!

We've digressed,...like a bad habit that can't be broken, we've reverted to the old ways. From all the optimism and positive things we saw in 2004, to doom and gloom for 2006. Remember how the Bucs were treated last off season?

You can find posts dwelling on injuries already, saying the Falcons are thin at safety and defensive tackle. There's Falcons fans saying they're scared of unproven rookies(Bush, Williams), within the division. The Falcons have been listed 22nd in a useless power ranking. The Falcons have received average or poor grades for thier draft. Pete Prisco, a definite Falcons detractor, has an article out about the woes of Atlanta's kicking game that'll hurt the Falcons this season,...here's the link,...

It's hard to break old thinking sometimes. As Falcons fans, we've been conditioned to be cautiously optimistic due to the fact our team has broken our hearts so many times. It's like a dog that cries to come in out of the rain,...then begs to be let out again. Old habits, old thinking, conditioned attitude,...all applicable here.

So how do we change this distasteful attitude? We can't.

There's just too many posts and articles that are filled with anxiety and outright bias to change the negativity that presently exudes from the minds of Falcons fans. Most of us have bitten the bait the media has tossed in front of us and they have most of us hooked and reeling us in to the boat.

The Crows upgrade at both safety positions,...upgrade at defensive end,...posess the deepest linebacker corps in the NFL,...have an elite, pure cover corner and should have another by 2007,...an O-line that has played together, minus one, for years now,...two young, quick as lightning WRs,...one of the best TEs in the NFL, if not the overall best,...a solid RB and a backup that will return to his bowling over DBs days,...one of the best FBs in the league,...and of course, the Falcons have Superman at the helm. But still,...it's doom and gloom.

I gotta admit,...it's starting to get to me a little bit. I can feel the negative vibes plain as day and even I'm beginning to wonder if the Falcons can win even 8 games after recently predicting a 10 win season.

We watched Bucs fans eat this crap last off season when EVERYBODY picked them to place last in the division. And we watched Bucs fans run it up the media's you know what after doing so well. Oh I know how sweet that must have been. So if the Falcons do well,...Pete Prisco and all these fans that are causing the rest of us to become uneasy will be the object of my complete and total delight. lol When it happens, come join me!;)

PB, I have to admit it's hard for me to get too optimistic. I'm definitely better than I was a few years ago in the days of Reeves. I had no confidence in that man or that team to produce a winner following the 1999 and 2000 seasons. Vick came along in 2001, and perked me up a little, but even after the 2002 season, I still didn't have a lot of optimism or confidence in the team. And when the bottom fell out in 2003, it made things worse.

It's not the same with Mora and the team now. I know we can play with the best in the league, the problem is inconsistency. When you're at midseason and 6-2 and vying with the Seahawks for NFC supremacy and then the following week you lose to the worst team in the conference (Green bay Packers), and then lose more, it takes a lot of wind out of your sails.

As you said, I'm cautiously optimistic. I believe our D can be a Top 10 unit this year. If our defense reaches that level we are going to go very far this year. But at the same time, I expected similar big things from the D at the beginning of last year and thinks did not go according to plan, so I'm not ready to outright say our defense will be a Top 10 unit this year, just that they have the potential to do so.

The off-season can be tough on the fan's psyche, particularly for Falcon fans. Prior to the '04 season, I remember being on a 9ers board and talking some trash there. Basically I was saying that there team was going to be pretty bad that year because they lost their 3 best offensive players (Garcia, Owens, Hearst) among other things. But many of those fans still believed that with Rattay, Barlow, and Lloyd they were going to win more games than they did in 2003, a season where they finished 7-9. That to me sort of illustrated that for some fans, like those of the 49ers that have pretty much gotten used to winning ove rthe past 20 years, prediciting the team to only go 5-11 or so much be extremely difficult. It's hard for any fan to accept their team is capable of only winning 3-5 games in a given year. But it seems that it is probably easier for fans of certain teams (like Falcons, or Cardinals, or Texans) to say it vs. others.

As a general rule, my enthusiasm and optimism usually decreases as the off-season progresses, and around this lull between May and July, it usually hits rock bottom. It'll perk back up come August.

Great reply Pudge,...am with ya all the way and you put it better than I could. You?,...talking trash on a Niners' board?

As we know, we don't have back to back winning seasons. I really got into the Falcons after moving back to Georgia from Florida in 1974. Finally we get into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in '78 I believe and then the first heartbreak occurred the next season. Then we have, arguably, the best team in the league in '80(even John Madden said so before the playoffs), and Danny White slid the stilletto in our guts with that comeback. Then the Crows did it to us again in '81. Playoffs in the strike shortened season, which was a joke and then the long dry spell in the mid to late '80's into 1990. So we get back to the playoffs in '91 and the Redskins beat the Falcons on a rain-soaked, purposely undrained field. Then '92,...heartbreak again. '95 saw Jeff George have a great season and the playoffs again,...'96,...3-13. How the crap can a team go from 9-7 to 3-13 in one year? '97 everyone was jumping up and down, as I recall, over the hiring of Reeves. Then we go 14-2 in '98 with that surreal game in Minnesota that propels us into the SB. '99,...5-11 due to injuries and lack of decent depth. And we all know what's happened recently.

Again, you are right on. Those Niners fans had become spoiled with winning and so your theory seems to be perfectly derived concerning we Falcons fans.

But when I see a post at the roost saying McKay is incompetent when the poster can't even spell the word,...I just think to myself,..."some of these people are just looking for something to complain and be negative over."

We could blame injuries over 1999, 2003 and 2005's result,...but when there's teams like the Patriots that appear to be decimated by the hurt bug and they continue winning,...there just is no excuse whatsoever for injuries.

Hopefully all this negative thinking won't cause us to have to get a scrip for ritalin or something.

We could blame injuries over 1999, 2003 and 2005's result,...but when there's teams like the Patriots that appear to be decimated by the hurt bug and they continue winning,...there just is no excuse whatsoever for injuries.

You're right. Injuries are the X factor when it comes to teams losing. You can guarantee it every year. Some playoff-caliber team is going to be decimated by injury this year, and wind up picking in the Top 10 in the draft next year. A few good examples from last year of teams that were decimated by injury: Jets, Eagles, Packers, and Rams. All were teams that were playoff caliber at the beginning of the season. The Eagles especially.

I realize that losing Vick, Dunn, Brooking, or Hall, or any one of our elite players to injury would mean a big dropoff in talent, but besides TE, OL, DE, and S, I feel pretty good about our depth at the other positions on the roster. Those 4 positions IMO would mean huge dropoffs in production at those positions.

I also think PB that we're at the point in the off-season where it's almost over. People tend to reflect on the thing as a whole. You look back over the past 3 months and see what you did and what you didn't do. And people tend to focus more what you didn't do. Short of a few mini-camp injuries or 1 or 2 veteran additions, this is basically the team we're going into training camp with, and give or take 3-5 other moves made at the end of camp, we basically have a good idea of what the meat of our opening day roster will be.

And I think as a Falcon fan, in general, people tend to focus on the weaknesses. Because in the past as you outlined, too often we've seen weaknesses overshadow our strengths come the regular season.

It's just a boring time in the off-season. Last May the only moves we made were signing a handful of undrafted free agents, which is minimal at best. It's just so boring, that I think as a way to distract themselves, people tend to get a bit overly-negative.

I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to be negative. Say you want to say, and be who you want to be. But there is a certain point when you've crossed into that negativity for negativity's sake realm. And that's when you trash McKay or Blank. You don't have to be in love with the guys, but to imply that either is making this team worse is just crazy.

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